It gets a VW-estimated maximum of 261 mpg—and it’s going into production.

So there we were in Qatar. This small emirate is reputed to have a per-capita GDP that ranks among the highest in the world. It has energy to spare, with plenty of oil and the world’s third-largest reserves of natural gas. The population produces three times as much carbon dioxide per person as does that of the United States. Premium gas costs the equivalent of just a dollar per gallon—and that’s after a recent 25-percent increase in the government-subsidized price, which caused serious consternation among the country’s V-8–packing drivers. The capital city of Doha is gridded with wide and heavily policed streets, which run among seemingly endless construction sites, all adding to a Manhattan-like skyscraper forest.